A one-minute advertisement on Pittsburgh radio stations tells listeners that Onorato is repaying union “special interests” with a project labor agreement, requiring that most of a $21 million science center at Community College of Allegheny County be built by union workers.

The Associated Builders & Contractors of Western Pennsylvania — a trade group that sued to block CCAC’s enforcement of the union requirement — said its ad is a warning that limiting competition on publicly financed projects could mean higher prices and taxes.

Onorato’s office called the charge “completely false.”

“This is clearly a political advertisement by a special-interest group,” said county spokeswoman Megan Dardanell. “Everyone — union and nonunion — are able to bid.”

Onorato’s political campaign declined to comment, saying the dispute relates to his day job, not his race for governor against Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett of Shaler.

Eileen Watt, president of the national trade organization’s local chapter, said her group supports Republicans but denied being a special-interest group.

Watt, a former Republican member of County Council, said her organization is “issue-driven” and that it would support Democratic or Republican candidates who oppose project labor agreements.

“What resonates with people is that this county is for sale to special interests,” she said.

Dardanell disagreed that labor agreements increase costs. Instead, they prohibit workers from going on strike and guarantee they’re paid healthy, state-mandated wages, said the county spokeswoman. In exchange, unions get a guarantee that their workers will receive jobs.

CCAC’s agreement guarantees that 90 percent of workers building the planned K. Leroy Iris Science Center would be union members — a level that Onorato last week said was “probably wrong.” The college halted bidding on the project and said it would review the matter after the trade group sued.

Gerald Shuster, a professor of political communication at the University Pittsburgh, said the radio ad could influence some voters because it links Onorato’s union backers to taxpayer waste.

“It’s an issue that I think the Onorato campaign team will ultimately have to address,” Shuster said, adding that if it doesn’t, people could begin to think it’s true.

On Wednesday, the Associated Builders & Contractors asked Onorato and Corbett to sign a pledge not to use labor agreements that limit nonunion workers’ participation.

Campaign spokesman Kevin Harley said Corbett is not willing to sign the pledge against project labor agreements.

“Whether a PLA (project labor agreement) is necessary for a project should be decided based upon the labor needs, cost and workforce unique to it and the availability of the local workforce,” Harley said.

By its express terms, Act 46 does not apply to: (1) an approval issued to comply with federal law, the duration or terms of expiration of which is specified or determined by federal law; or (2) requirements that are necessary to retain federal delegation to, or assumption by, the Commonwealth of the authority to implement a federal law or program. For example, Act 46 does not extend any of the NPDES permits administered by the Department or County Conservation Districts, including those for construction activities, for both of those reasons.

The following approvals issued by the Department, County Conservation Districts and local agencies are subject to Act 46 when they are associated with land development and related construction, subject to the exceptions listed below in this Notice:

Dam, authorizations, 1. Water Obstruction and Encroachment permits, and General Permit under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 105. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the related Pennsylvania State Programmatic General Permit (”SPGP”) authorizes pursuant to Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act will also be extended. Neither the Department nor any delegated County Conservation District or holder of such an authorization under Chapter 105 will have to take any action to effectuate this extension of any related SPGP authorization.

Water  2. Quality Certifications under Section 401 of the Federal Clean Water Act that are issued by the Department for General Permits issued under Chapter 105. The extension is for the same length of time that the applicable Chapter 105 coverage approval is extended.

The beneficial 3. following permits and general permit authorizations issued for use of residual waste, under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 287:

WMGR065—Beneficial the use of the following types of residual wastes related to manufacturing of iron and steel: refractories, foundry sands, slags, air emission control solids and the media associated with their excavation as construction fill at an Act 2 remediation site.

WMGR070—Beneficial generated at hot-mixed use of baghouse fines from air pollution devices asphalt plants as a construction material or as levee core impermeable fill and pipe bedding.

WMGR072—Beneficial material in roadway use of dewatered dredge waste for use as a roadbed construction.

WMGR079—Processing aggregate in the and beneficial use of waste asphalt shingles as an production of hot mix asphalt paving material and as a sub-base for road and driveway construction.

WMGR082—Processing bricks mined and beneficial use of steel and iron slag and refractory from an existing slag pile for use as a construction material.

WMGR090—Processing materials as and beneficial use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) roadway construction material.

Deadlines construction  109.503. 4. for commencement of construction in public water system permits issued under 25 Pa. Code §

Approvals  5. for on-lot systems issued by local agencies under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 72.

680.1 et  6. Plan approvals under Act 167, 32 P. S. § seq. (relating to storm water management).

Part II 7 permits for construction of sewage treatment facilities under 25 . Pa. Code Chapter 91.

Holders by of approvals (i.e., permittees) granted under programs administered the Department should not assume that an expiration date has been extended under Act 46 unless it is one of the types of approvals listed in this Notice and the holder has received a verification according to guidelines included in the Department’s Guidance for Implementation of Act 46, which is available on the Department’s website at www.depweb.state.pa.us under the ”Licensing, Permits & Certification” link.

Certain well approvals granted under programs administered by the Department, as as particular circumstances, are not applicable to the extensions provided under Act 46. These include:

An  1. approval issued to comply with federal law, the duration or terms of expiration of which is specified or determined by federal law.

Requirements  2. that are necessary to retain federal delegation to, or assumption by, the Commonwealth of the authority to implement a federal law or program.

Approvals surface 3. where, after the approval and during the extension period, the waters became classified as High Quality pursuant to 25 Pa. Code Section 93.1, § 93.4b(A) or classified as Exceptional Value pursuant to 25 Pa. Code 93.4b(B)(1).

An  4. approval that was issued in connection with Exceptional Value surface waters under 25 Pa. Code § 93.4b(B)(1).

An  5. administrative consent order or other enforcement action relating to an approval that is subject to the extension period.

The  6. revocation or modification of an approval or extension of an approval, when the approval authorizes the modification or revocation for cause.

The Department’s interpretation of Act 46 referred to herein is not an adjudication or a regulation. There is no intent on the part of the Department to give the contents of this Notice, and the Department’s guidance referred to in this Notice, that weight or deference. This Notice explains the framework within which the Department will exercise its administrative discretion in the future, and the Department reserves the discretion to deviate from that framework if circumstances warrant.

Questions concerning the applicability of Act 46 to approvals granted under programs administered by the Department may be directed to the Regional Office, District Mining Office, Central Office program, County Conservation District or local agency that issued the approval. Contact information is provided in the Department’s guidance document referred to above.

This archaic act requires separate bids to be awarded for a minimum of four (4) prime contract packages; general trades, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. Under the Mandate Waiver Program, established by Act 16 of 2000 and administered by the Department of Education, a school entity may apply for a waiver from these provisions to utilize single prime contracting. Doing so allows them to enjoy the same efficiency as a developer building a neighborhood of homes or a local business erecting their new office complex.

Unfortunately, the legislation that created the mandate waiver program is set to expire in June 2010, and school districts, legislators and state policymakers are being told by an ad hoc collection of “concerned” contractors and trades groups that the multiple prime delivery system is the only way to build schools safely, on time and on budget. Of course, this isn’t the case.

Countless schools and other buildings we enter every day were built efficiently and safely under a single prime contract by general contractors of all sizes, and they continue to be safe. More importantly, there is no school board director or school business officer, administrator or superintendent who would place a method of contracting over the health and wellbeing of the children they serve.

Ordinarily, such rhetoric wouldn’t merit a response. However, a group calling themselves Concerned Contractors is entrenched in a campaign to cloud reality, and we can’t allow them to say whatever they want and to put it forth as fact.

So, in the coming weeks, our coalition of education and construction professionals will focus on debunking the campaign of mistruths put forth by the Concerned Contractors and use these pages to tell you the rest of the story – the real story. We will also be asking you to support legislation to extend the mandate waiver program, without imposing any new mandates on schools with regard to how they bid construction projects.

At the heart of what the Concerned Contractors group professes is a faulty premise that a school district need only to bid a project both ways – single prime and multi-prime – to determine what will be cheaper on bid day.

They would have you believe it’s like choosing between the same model washer and dryer at Lowes or Sears – shop wherever it’s cheaper. Easy, right?

THE REST OF THE STORY

But that is only part of the story. Such a requirement would be grossly unfair because comparing the two bidding systems in this context is completely disingenuous.

A great example of this involves what happened at the A. W. Beattie Technical School in suburban Pittsburgh. The winning bid to do additions and renovations there was $13.6 million – almost $5 million below the budget for the job. Only two of the six contractors who submitted bids regularly engage in school construction so that

led to some unusual dynamics on bid day.

At the eleventh hour, one of the bidders found a significant hole in the scope of a heating subcontractor’s bid, resulting in an error of over $500,000. The HVAC contractor was not one of the bidder’s usual subs and was a

company that would have bid as a prime contractor on a multiple prime project. Because full service general contractors know they have to live within their proposals, they routinely do detailed subcontractor scope evaluations before bids are submitted. In the case of Beattie, the HVAC sub with the mistake had the chance to

pull his bid. In a separate prime circumstance, however, the error would not have been discovered until after the bids were opened. Similar scope problems were discovered on an electrical bid on the Beattie job.

Without the scope reviews by general contractors, multiple prime contractors can submit bids that are hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a single prime bidder’s low bid. But, when these artificially low bids don’t pan

out, the additional costs that result quickly wipe out any “Bid Day” savings. Fortunately for Beattie, they sought and received a mandate waiver to award a single contract to a small family-owned contractor located just over three miles from the job site. Several months into the project the job is on time and on budget. This is just one example of how single prime construction is nearly always a better

predictor of project costs – from start to finish.

The bottom line is that general contractors who are capable of doing single prime construction understand that they cannot compete with artificially low multi-bids. Therefore, such a requirement will not only give the false

impression that single bids are more expensive, but it will distort the playing field so drastically that it will result in no single prime bids on any projects. In other words, mandating that a district bid a project both ways is tantamount to eliminating single prime contracting as an option at all.

And that is the rest of the story.

Please contact your state representative and state senator and tell them to vote YES on legislation to extend the School Mandate Waivers Program WITHOUT any requirements to bid a project both ways.

To contact your legislator visit here.

Spring 2009 was the target for the Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) to award contracts for 6 prison construction projects to expand its inmate housing capacity. It is now February 2010; 3 projects with a total value of approximately $35 million have been awarded, and 3 projects with a value of over $800 million remain on hold. While delays happen and it is easy to blame bureaucracy, DGS is not at fault. The real culprit is the Pennsylvania Separations Act of 1913.

Under this archaic act, the governmental entity in charge of a project is required to bid separately and award separately a minimum of 4 prime contract packages; general trades, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. Each of the prime contractors has a separate (thus the name “Separations Act”) contract with the governmental entity awarding the work. This is an inefficient contract delivery method fraught with problems like schedule delays and claims.

When DGS decided to move forward with its expansion project, they bid contracts under the widely supported “best value design-build” delivery system which would have enabled construction to begin as soon as possible after a contract was awarded. Further, the attractiveness of the design-build delivery system is that DGS can select a single contractor that is completely responsible for the design and construction of a project for a lump sum price. Given time constraints and budgetary considerations, design-build is clearly in the taxpayers’ best interest.

Unfortunately, a legal challenge filed by the Pennsylvania Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) chapters and other contractors have caused interminable delays. While the primary target of the challenge was another issue dealing with project labor agreements (PLA’s), the pending litigation also contended that the design-build procurement method does not comply with the Pennsylvania Separations Act.

As a result, instead of being able to move forward, contractors, subcontractors, architects, and engineers are spinning their wheels – wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on bidding and re-bidding projects that are likely to be re-bid yet again. This waste of time, energy, and resources is all because the DGS must conform to the Separations Act – a statute that exists in only a handful of states. It is also not a project delivery system used in the federal, private, residential, or commercial markets.

It is clear to us that the Pennsylvania Separations Act is again wreaking havoc on important taxpayer funded construction. Six prison projects – projects that would improve public safety, provide hundreds of much needed jobs and would otherwise be completed under a widely supported design-build delivery system – remain on hold.

The negative impact of the Separations Act is not limited to prison expansion. It is also a stumbling block for school districts that seek to use single prime or alternative delivery methods it deems best to complete priority construction projects.

GCAP believes the time is now to repeal this antiquated and pointless statute. Until we do, more practical and efficient options such as design-build and single prime contracting will not be available to the DGS, school districts, or other public agencies in Pennsylvania.

GCAP recognizes that prison overcrowding is a multifaceted problem caused by many things and requiring many solutions. However, the Commonwealth cannot afford to ignore the obstacle the Separations Act has become. No matter what policy changes may be on the horizon, the need for well-constructed facilities – built on-time and on-budget – will always be an essential part of the equation and in the best interests of the taxpayer.

The move – which the city said can save an estimated $80 million over five years – comes a week after contracts expired for the city’s four municipal unions. It would affect two types of raises automatically awarded city workers for time served.

The city has never taken such a step, but officials say that a state Supreme Court ruling supports the move.

The ruling says that the city is legally required to maintain the “status quo” of employee compensation after a contract has expired if negotiations continue. But the court stipulates that the status quo does not include pay increases.

Whether such a freeze will remain in place for the 20,000 unionized workers will ultimately be determined by contract negotiations. The city said that as part of its effort to find $125 million in contract savings over five years, city negotiators were seeking new contracts with no raises of any kind.

Nutter will dictate when to change the pay-increase policy for the city’s 870 non-represented civil service employees.

Union leaders have come out publicly against the city’s decision, saying they would fight back.

Negotiations with DC 47 and blue-collar union AFSCME DC 33 are supposed to continue later this week. The police and fire contracts are settled through arbitration. That process has started for police and will kick off for fire in September.

Source: Daily News

“There is a fiscal crisis in the country, but we didn’t cause it,” shouted Pete Matthews, president of Philadelphia’s largest union, District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, with 9,400 blue-collar workers. Referring to deals the union has made to help the city save money, Matthews said, “They are using this fiscal crisis for overkill.”

In a show of unity, leaders of several of the other city unions – AFSCME District Council 47, the white-collar union; Transport Union Workers 234, who work for SEPTA; and Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, whose members include city security guards – joined the rally at John F. Kennedy Plaza.

“While the mayor has shown no interest in partnering with us, he has accomplished a task in uniting all of us as partners,” said Cathy Scott, president of District Council 47. “Today, he can recognize we are a force to be reckoned with.”

After the rally, which lasted about 40 minutes, many of the workers marched in the rain around City Hall, briefly tying up traffic during the height of the evening rush.

The protest was the first substantial union action to occur as the city seeks new four-year pacts with D.C. 47 and D.C. 33. Contracts for both expire June 30, but talks have been few, and the city has prepared a strike plan. Leaders for both sides have said they don’t expect such an action in the immediate weeks.

In his address to the crowd, Matthews said that in March, Nutter – 20 minutes before the start of his annual budget address – called the labor leader to say that the city would seek to keep wages flat, lower contributions to union health plans, and reorganize the pension plan.

The call, Matthews said, dissolved his “friendship” with the mayor and at one point referred to what he called Nutter’s “dictatorial threats.”

Yesterday, Nutter fulfilled part of his intent, sending City Council legislation that would give people hired July 1 and thereafter fewer pension benefits.

Doug Oliver, Nutter’s spokesman, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Throughout the rally, union workers waved signs and shouted slogans like “Shut It Down!”

Revving up the crowd was former City Controller Jonathan Saidel, who is likely to run next year for lieutenant governor.

“Where in the world does it say, if you want to balance a budget, you take it out on the people who make the city run?” he asked.

“We live together or we die together,” he continued, “And we choose to live.”

At least four other politicians also attended, all on stage with union leaders: City Council members Jannie Blackwell and Curtis Jones Jr.; State Rep. John Sabatina Jr.; and former State Rep. Thomas Blackwell.

“It’s a start,” said former District Council 47 president Thomas Paine Cronin, who stood on the fringes of the crowd. “But I think they have to ratchet it up.”

He pointed out that the city’s police and fire unions, whose contracts also expire June 30, were not visible. “This is a fight, and the other unions should have been here, too,” he said.

The proposed plan would combine a traditional pension – at a lower benefit rate than current employees receive – with a 401(k) plan into which workers pay.

Because Thursday was the final Council session of the season, the bill could not receive final passage until fall. But if it were to pass, any workers hired after July 1 would be retroactively subject to the terms.

Finance Director Rob Dubow said that the plan would save the city $500 million over 30 years.

“This is a financial move to ensure the health of our pension fund,” he said.

The legislation is needed to amend city law. But any change to worker pensions would also have to be approved by the city’s four municipal unions, whose contracts expire June 30.

According to the Inquirer, union leaders scoffed at the pension changes.

“We’re opposed to that because we want all our members to get the same terms,” said Pete Matthews, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municiapl Employees, District Council 33, which represents the city’s blue-collar workers.

Contracts for DC 33 and the white-collar workers in AFSCME DC 47 must be negotiated, while police and fire contracts are subject to arbitration.

So far, talks have been moving slowly. DC 47 and DC 33 are set to rally today in JFK Plaza, across from City Hall.

Managing Director Camille Barnett is working on strike-contingency plans, in case the non-uniform workers hit the pavement.

She stressed that the city makes strike plans every time the contracts are set to expire.

Barnett added that the city, which has been hammered by the economic crisis, cannot afford the current contract terms.

“Our job is to get contracts with our workforce that are fair to the workforce and fair to the citizens,” Barnett said. “The simple truth is we cannot afford the status quo.”

In his five-year financial plan, Nutter banks on getting $125 million in savings from the union contracts over the next five years.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

The US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said New Jersey’s rate was 8.2 %, the same rate as in February. New Jersey’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported a slightly higher rate of 8.3 % earlier this week.

Delaware’s jobless rate stood at 7.7 % for March. The national unemployment rate for the month was 8.5 %.

Over the month, Pennsylvania’s nonfarm job count fell by 30,500, New Jersey’s by 17,200, and Delaware’s by 3,200.

The three states are among 48 nationwide, and the District of Columbia, that experienced a decline in nonfarm employment between February and March.

Between March 2008 and last month, Delaware has lost 19,300 jobs, New Jersey has lost 130,300 and Pennsylvania has lost 132,800.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Rendell recently floated the notion that unless a cost-saving deal could be reached with the larger state unions his administration was prepared to institute rolling furloughs that would send workers home without pay for two days each month through June 2010.

Union leaders strongly opposed that option. According to the Inquirer, they lauded the tentative deal, which still has to be ratified by members.

David R. Fillman, executive director of Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told the Inquirer he was happy with the agreement under which state employees will “not even notice any difference” in the health-care plan.

“I think it was a fair compromise,” added Kathy Jellison, president of Service Employees International Union Local 668, which represents about 10,000 state employees. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Jellison said ballots will be sent to her members next week and will be tallied April 20.

Fillman told the Inquirer he hoped his entire membership would have completed voting on the proposal by April 24.

Leaders for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 also have tentatively endorsed the pact. Talks between the administration and smaller unions are continuing.

Rendell said the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund, with $248 million in reserve, is well-funded and fiscally stable. The governor said the state is committed to paying back the fund in monthly installments starting as early as September of next year.

Rendell has forecast a $2.3 billion deficit in this year’s budget, and has said it could grow even wider before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

He has outlined a number of measures to close that gap, including asking all state departments and agencies to cut their budgets by 4.25 % and eliminating raises for 13,000 nonunion workers this year.

His proposed $29 billion budget for 2009-10 brings even more pain. In all, Rendell is proposing to eliminate funding for 101 programs, many of which he said were not essential to protecting the health, welfare and safety of the state. Some of those programs include funding for museums, arts groups and public television programming.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

The document appears to be a direct challenge to city labor unions.

In addition to tax hikes, Nutter’s budget makes clear that he intends to use the fiscal crisis to win concessions from the city’s workforce.

His budget proposes no wage increases over five years, and cuts to the city’s health care costs. He also wants changes in work rules, and fewer paid holidays for city workers.

Mayor Nutter will also seek to sharply reduce pension benefits for new employees, by having the city’s beleagured pension fund declared “severely distressed” by  the Pennsylvania Employee Retirement Commission. Such a declaration would clear the way for a new benefit structure for future hires, one that is far less generous then the package received by current workers and retirees.

In a letter attached to his five-year spending plan, Nutter warned that he would pursue contract agreements this summer with city unions that are “reflective of the challenging economic environment in which we currently find ourselves.”

“It is important for all represented and nonrepresented employees to share the burden that these economic times have forced all of us to shoulder. Therefore, my proposed budget and five year plan include assumptions of reduced City costs for health care benefits, pensions and work rules. Without achieving at least this level of savings in these areas, we will not be able to balance our plan,” Nutter’s letter read.

Nutter has also provided a grim “contingency” budget and five-year plan, which he says the city will be forced to turn to if it does not win union concessions or fails to get approval from the state legislature for some of his measures. That budget focuses much more on cuts, and would lead to further closures of fire companies, the shuttering of a health center, less frequent trash collection, shorter hours at libraries and recreation centers, and the laying off of 256 police recruits, among other steps.

Source: Heard in the Hall